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| Fatima, Portugal. |
This past Friday 13th was the anniversary of the apparitions of Fatima, Portugal, in 1917, where three young children—Francisco Marto aged 9, Jacinta Marto aged 7 (brother and sister) and their cousin Lucia dos Santos aged 10—witnessed six apparitions of Our Lady. The year before, the archangel Michael appeared to them to prepare them for Our Lady’s visit. Then on May 13th 1917, Our Lady appeared to them for the first time. She would appear to them on the 13th of each month until October.
Our Lady told Francisco and Jacinta that they would die young, but first they were asked to pray much and suffer much for the conversion of sinners. Francisco died two years later aged 11 and Jacinta the following year aged 8. Lucia eventually became a Carmelite nun where she spent the rest of her life. Our Lady told the children that there would only be peace if her requests were heeded. She asked that people would pray the rosary daily, wear the brown scapular and that Russia would be consecrated to her. She told them that war was a punishment for sin and that only through prayer and penance could war be avoided. She also said that if Russia wasn’t converted it would continue to spread its errors (Communism and atheism) throughout the world. What became known as the three ‘secrets’ of Fatima were also given to the children. The first was a vision of Hell, the second was a prophecy of WW II and the third remained secret but was believed to have to do with the sufferings of the Church and the pope.
Why did Our Lady show young children a vision of hell? Probably to make us realize that it is real, that we can lose heaven and that our actions do have consequences. We will be accountable for the way we live. Does that mean that we should be afraid? No, but we must take our time on earth seriously. The Lord promises us that the smallest effort on our part to repent, is enough to win his infinite mercy.
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| Lucia, Franceso and Jacinta |
Francisco, just 9, wanted to go with Our Lady to heaven, but she said that he wasn’t ready, as he needed to pray much for sinners, so that he wouldn’t come before God with empty hands. In other words, he needed to do many good deeds first.
One thing that Our Lady said to the children always stays with me. She said, ‘If men knew what heaven was like, they would do everything to change their ways.’
On the last day of the apparitions, October 13th, the people who came to the place of the apparition witnessed the miracle of the sun, which Our Lady had said would happen to help the people believe. It was raining heavily but then suddenly the rain stopped, the sun came out and many people saw the sun ‘dancing’ or spinning, with many different colors coming from it and finally the sun seemed to be careering towards the earth, but then stopped. When the miracle ended, everyone found themselves completely dry. It is believed that approximately 70,000 people witnessed this miracle. The miracle of the sun was granted to them to help the people believe in the reality of the apparitions.
Apart from the fact that it is an interesting story, what has this got to do with us today? Like so many other aspects of our faith it has everything to do with us. If God the Father sends Our Lady to us, there must be a serious reason for it. Our Lady has also appeared in many other parts of the world, especially over the last century and the message is always more or less the same. It is never about her, it is always her pointing us back to God. She tells us that the world is living as though God does not exist and that if we continue to live that way we will destroy ourselves. If we ignore God and his teachings, our society falls apart, because we cannot live without God and we need his Commandments and guidance to live as He calls us to live. She says that we need to pray, to repent, to go to confession, to receive the Eucharist and to read the Bible.
We just have to listen to the news to see what happens when we try to live without God. Greed, corruption, desire for power, all lead to misery and war. She said that war was a punishment for sin, which we brought on ourselves. God shows us the way, but if we ignore it we bring suffering on ourselves.
The apparitions happened during the first world war. Our Lady said that that war would soon end, but that if people didn’t heed her warnings, a worse war would follow, and it did: the Second World War. It is estimated that over 50 million people died in WWII.
The message is the exact same for us today. The world is living as though God does not exist. The solution to it, is to repent and turn back to God. And yes, we are here in church because we believe, but we must also pray for those who do not believe, so that they may not be lost. What happens to us on earth is often painful. We go through all kinds of trials and suffering, but what will happen to us when we die is for all eternity. The most important thing we can pray for is the conversion of sinners. It may sound a bit cliched, but it is not. We don’t want any of our family or friends to be lost. Therefore we must pray and fast and do penance for them.
In the Old Testament Moses said to the people:
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to him; for this is your life and the length of your days, that you may live in the land which the Lord swore to your fathers, to Abraham, Isaac and Jacob, to give them…” (Deut 30:19 ff)
We are offered the same choice today and the consequences are just as serious. If we want the world to be a better place for us and our children, then we must begin with ourselves. Sorting out the world’s problems is not where we start. We start with ourselves by obeying the Lord’s commandments; by repentance and prayer and keeping God at the center. That is what changes the world.
Our time on earth is the time of sacrifice, of love and service. We will struggle until the day we are brought home to heaven, but we need to remind ourselves that it is not all about us, but about loving and serving the people around us.
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The truth is that we don’t take sin and repentance seriously enough. If unrepentant sin is the one thing that could cause us to lose our greatest happiness, which is life with God when we die, then we need to take it very seriously. God gives us all the tools that we need, the Eucharist, the priesthood to give us the Eucharist and the forgiveness of sins, but we must choose to use them.
If you think back on your time in school: at the time it probably seemed long, but now it is already in the distant past and seems unimportant. Our life on earth is something similar. Now it often seems long and difficult, but soon our time on earth will be over and then it will seem remarkably short. How we live it, is what is really important.
God continually shows us exactly what to do and how to live, but we must choose to do it, or not.
“I call heaven and earth to witness against you today, that I have set before you life and death, the blessing and the curse. So choose life in order that you may live, you and your descendants, by loving the Lord your God, by obeying His voice, and by holding fast to him. (Deut 30:19)
Our lady of Fatima, pray for us.
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